(AP) TOKYO - A powerful typhoon slammed into Japan's east Wednesday, leaving six people dead or missing in south-central regions and halting trains in Tokyo before grazing a crippled nuclear plant in the tsunami-ravaged northeast.Officials at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, where engineers are still struggling with small radiation leaks due to tsunami damage, expressed relief that the heavy rains and driving winds from Typhoon Roke caused no immediate problems there other than a broken security camera.
"The worst seems to be over," said Takeo Iwamoto, spokesman for plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., after the storm passed just west of the plant and then headed north.
More than 200,000 households in central Japan were without electricity late Wednesday.
Typhoon near Japan prompts evac warnings for 1M
Police and local media reported that at least six people were dead or missing in southern and central regions, mostly from being swept away by rivers swollen with rains
The storm, packing sustained winds of up to 90 mph, made landfall in early afternoon near the city of Hamamatsu, about 125 miles west of Tokyo. The fast-moving storm went past the capital in the evening and then headed into the Tohoku region devastated by the March 11 tsunami.
In Tokyo, where many rush hour commuter trains were suspended, thousands of commuters trying to rush home were stuck at stations across the sprawling city.
"The hotels in the vicinity are all booked up, so I'm waiting for the bullet train to restart," Hiromu Harada, a 60-year-old businessman, said dejectedly at Tokyo Station.
Fire department officials reported three people injured in Tokyo. In the trendy shopping district of Shibuya, winds knocked over a tree onto a sidewalk, but no one was hurt. Television footage showed pedestrians struggling to walk straight in powerful winds that made umbrellas useless.
The storm passed just west of the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, where engineers are still working to stabilize the reactors after three of them melted down when the tsunami cut off power to the plant and its back-up generators.
Iwamoto said the cooling system for the reactors, crucial to keeping them under control, survived the typhoon. A closed-circuit camera that shows exteriors of the damaged reactor buildings abruptly stopped when the storm passed and plant workers were investigating the cause of the problem, he said.
Some construction work around the plant was canceled. Workers were trying to prevent pools of contaminated water in the plant from flooding and leaking outside the complex.
"The contaminated water levels have been rising and we are watching the situation very closely to make sure it stays there," Junchi Matsumoto, another power company spokesman, told reporters.
Heavy rains caused floods and road damage in dozens of locations in Nagoya and several other cities, the Aichi prefectural (state) government said. Parts of Japan's central city of Nagoya, about 170 miles west of Tokyo, were flooded near swollen rivers where rescue workers helped residents evacuate in rubber boats.
Police in nearby Gifu prefecture said a 9-year-old boy and an 84-year-old man were missing after apparently falling into swollen rivers.
More than 200 domestic flights were canceled and some bullet train services were suspended.
Toyota Motor Corp., Japan's No. 1 automaker, which is headquartered in Toyota city in Aichi, shut down its plants as a precaution.
Machinery maker Mitsubishi Heavy Industries told workers to stay home at its five plants and an office in the Nagoya area, company spokesman Hideo Ikuno said.
Nissan Motor Co. spokesman Chris Keeffe said workers at its Yokohama headquarters and nearby technical facilities were being told to go home early for safety reasons, and two plants were not operating.
A typhoon that slammed Japan earlier this month left about 90 people dead or missing.
